The Lapis socks have finally been rescued from the knitting black hole they were in, and I’m actually making progress. And here’s a couple of pics to prove it.

The pattern is the same as the one I used on the red Fixation socks (that I still need to get a page up for and get added into the FO gallery). It’s a little harder to see the stitch pattern on the Sock Candy because of all of the colors. But I think it’s going to be obvious enough.

I’ve stretched one of the socks on a blocker so that it looks a little more like a sock and a little less like a crumpled mass of ribbing. When they’re finished, I’ll take a side-by-side shot so you can see how fraternal they’ve remained. You can see that the one on the blocker pooled at the instep. The other one didn’t pool at all. Until now. It’s pooling on the ankle. Go figure.

This is a close-up of the dropped-stitch rib pattern. I’ve worked one pattern repeat and have three to go. I really like this stitch. It’s fast to work, and it’s always fun to get to drop stitches on purpose! I really like the way that the heel turns out on these, too. It’s a slip-stitch heel masquerading as 2×2 ribbing. I promise to have this pattern up in the Freebies section just as soon as I get these finished and have pics.

I’m so glad to have these out of the black hole! I don’t know how other knitters feel when working socks. But, for me the toe is really fast, and the foot is a slog. The foot just goes on and on and on interminably until I want to stab knitting needles through my head. I have to knit about a million rounds to get 1/2″ of progress.

Then I finally reach the start of the gusset increases, and the black hole is left behind. Heels don’t take any time to turn. And the ankles and cuffs are really fast. And suddenly I have a pair of socks without hardly any effort!

All projects seem to have a place where this happens. With sweaters, the black hole shows up when I’m knitting the back. With bags, it’s the last inch or so. Scarves… well, it shows up when I cast on and it goes away when I bind off. I’m just not a scarf person, but I greatly admire those of you who are! Lace I can knit for a long time and not hit the black hole.

Is there a place in your knitting where your project falls into the black hole? What do you do to rescue it?